“They already attacked us. Are you still under contract with them after this? Because I don’t think you want to do business with someone who has no problem killing their supplier’s daughters!”
Netto stepped forward, his eyes hooded, a large hand clasped around Rylie’s shoulder. “What are you talking about?”
“He kidnapped you!” Quinten yelled. “He kidnapped your baby sister!”
“He took me and Lily snuck on board,” Janet yelled back. “When have you resorted to killing?”
“You’re defending him?” Quinten’s face was red and puffy, his eyes bloodshot with dark circles beneath them.
Zeph felt a needle of guilt. If his own daughters were stolen, he’d rip them limb from limb then eat the remains.
Janet hesitated, her face flushed now too. “I’m… No, I’m not.”
“You are.” His eyes appeared even more tired. “Please just tell me you and Lily are okay.”
“I’m okay, Da,” Lily quietly spoke again.
Janet sagged, defeated. “We’re good. We…” She stopped and twisted to look up at him. Zeph nodded, and she turned back to the screen. “We’re safe.”
“Where are you?” Rylie asked.
Zeph met Netto’s calculating gaze again. The shark was lost in his head. Even through the shoddy connection, Zeph recognized that digital glazed look all Cyborgs shared.
Back off, Shark.He was trying to locate them.
Janet pursed her lips and Zeph waited for her to tell her family their location. He’d never ask her to lie for him, especially not to them. The worry shared between all the Montihans, and now including Netto, irked him. It made him envious.
It made him feel like a villain.
“We’ll see you soon,” Janet said after a minute.
“Janet, please…” Rylie’s eyes filled with tears. She looked imploringly at Zeph. “Please, Zeph, bring my sisters back safely. We’ll forgive you. Everything will be forgotten if you just bring them back, please.”
Zeph shut down the call without responding. The screen vanished with a blip, leaving the lab quiet but for Janet’s quick, shallow breaths.
He turned toward Mr. Heartface. “Pack up several bags and load the hovercraft,” he ordered, heading toward the exit. “We’re leaving.”
15
Blood soaked his back and ran in rivulets down his body. Zeph had to get away before he did something he’d forever regret. Visions of Rylie’s begging and Quinten’s tired eyes filled his head. He growled as they replayed over, and over, and over again. He strode through the passageways of his ship toward the armory. The smell of copper followed him.
When the armory’s door zipped closed behind him, he bellowed at the top of his lungs and ripped off his uniform. He beat the walls and sliced through the aluminum grates, his body trying and failing again and again to shift.
Zeph dropped to his knees, reached behind him, and felt the jagged spikes across his upper back. They’d pierced through his skin despite his will to stop it from happening. His skin was supposed to shift with it and pull into his interior frame, but when he tried, it tore apart instead. The malfunction sizzled his insides and sent his nanocells into overdrive. They attacked him as much as they tried to neutralize the pain.
Someone pounded on the door.
“Zeph, let me in,” Janet called, voice muffled.
“Go away,” he snapped loud enough for her to hear. The floor was slippery with his blood, and he sure as hell didn’t want Janet to see it. Or him.
“There’s a trail of blood all the way from the lab!”
Fuck.
He peered down at his hands. They were a deep chrome silver. His arms were the same, and so were his chest and legs.
“Go make sure Lily is okay,” he gritted.
